IHC okays action against sugar mills

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Saturday dismissed the plea of the Sugar Mills Association and allowed all the agencies to act on the sugar inquiry commission report.

The Chief Justice Islamabad High Court Justice Athar Minallah resumed hearing on the plea of Pakistan Sugar Mills Association who had challenged the constitution of the inquiry commission and its findings.

The two-page decision said the right to a fair trial of any party should not be affected, including the petitioner. The verdict further said the commission was formed according to the IHC’s short verdict and the government’s decision of sending the case to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was correct. The court, in its verdict, stated that the federal ministers cannot comment on the verdict. The detailed verdict of the case will be released later on.

During the hearing, Justice Athar Minallah remarked that it was not the courts’ job to fix the price of sugar in the country. “They can’t make decisions on executive matters,” he remarked. He said the name of a federal minister in the sugar commission inquiry report was a test case for the government and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) adding that the court did not know if the latter would take action.

Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Khalid Jawed Khan said it had become a tradition in Pakistan that powerful employees of PSMA were present in the government. “It would be wrong to say that the commission of inquiry was set up to take revenge on political opponents,” said the AGP. “The inquiry is also being conducted against the government’s strong allies and friends, which proves that this is not a biased operation,” he said.

Justice Athar Minallah, while having a dialogue with lawyer of sugar mills association, said how they could extend the restraining order after such strong arguments. It is pertinent to mention that the IHC had issued a restraining order for 10 days on the sugar inquiry commission and directed sale of sugar at Rs70 per kilogram.

Earlier, the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association and 17 other mill owners, including the PTI leader Jahangir Tareen, had challenged the commission report in the IHC, alleging that legal formalities were not fulfilled during the investigations conducted by the commission. The commission, in its report, has accused the sugar mill owners of earning illegal profits amounting to billions of rupees through unjustified price hikes, benami transactions, tax evasion, suspicious sugar export deals, illegal power production, misuse of subsidy and purchasing sugarcane off the books.